1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cable-type steering device in which a steering wheel and a gear box are connected to each other by flexible cables such as Bowden wires.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional steering device for a vehicle, a steering shaft having a steering wheel at an upper end thereof is connected at its lower end to the gear box, so that a steering torque inputted to the steering wheel is transmitted through the steering shaft to a rack and pinion mechanism which is mounted within the gear box.
However, if the steering wheel and the gear box are connected to each other using the steering shaft, it is difficult to freely select the position of the steering wheel relative to the position of the gear box. For this reason, there is encountered a problem that the degree of freedom of the design is substantially limited, but also the gear box cannot be commonly used in a right-hand steered vehicle and a left-hand steered vehicle. Moreover, another problem is that the vibration inputted to a tire from a road surface and the vibration of an engine are inputted to the steering wheel through the steering shaft and hence, the silence within a vehicle compartment and the riding comfort are impeded by such vibrations.
Therefore, there is a proposed cable-type steering device which employs a flexible transmitting means such as Bowden wire and the like in place of the conventional steering shaft (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 8-2431).
If the construction of the proposed cable-type steering device is used, the position of the steering wheel relative to the position of the gear box can be freely selected and moreover, the vibration of the gear box is difficult to be transmitted to the steering wheel and hence, the above-described problems can be solved.
In the conventional cable-type steering device, in assembling the pulley to which the wires are connected in the housing, an end of the wire is passed through a wire penetration bore defined in a housing body and is wound around the pulley. Then, the pulley is mounted into the housing body and covered by a housing cover. Therefore, in winding the end of the wire around the pulley, it is necessary to manually draw the wire by a sufficient length into the housing body through the penetration bore. For this reason, when the remainder of the wire is pulled out of the housing body after completion of the assembling, the wire remainder is largely loosened. Namely, there is a problem that unless the entire length of the wire is larger than a required length, assembly of the pulley and the wire to the housing fails.